UAE: Daily Covid-19 cases dip below 500 for the first time in 3 months

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Wednesday reported 499 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 618 recoveries and no deaths.

Total active cases stand at 18,699.

The new cases were detected through 282,974 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on August 31 are 1,015,398, while total recoveries stand at 994,358. The death toll now stands at 2,341.

Life expectancy in the United States — in 2021 — fell for the second year in a row to its lowest level since 1996, driven by Covid-19 deaths, according to provisional government data published on Wednesday.

The nearly one-year decline from 2020 to 76.1 years marked the largest two-year drop in life expectancy at birth — in close to a century — according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Disparity in life expectancy between men and women also widened last year to the highest in over two decades, with men now expected to live 73.2 years, nearly six years lesser than women.

Deaths from Covid-19 contributed to half of the overall decline in life expectancy last year, with drug overdoses and heart disease also major contributors, the data showed.

Covid-19 was associated with more than 460,000 US deaths in 2021, according to CDC statistics.

In 2020, US life expectancy saw its biggest one-year drop since World War Two, with Covid-related deaths contributing nearly 75 per cent to the decline.

"Mortality's been a little better in 2022 than it was in 2020, so I think it's likely that we would see maybe a slight increase in life expectancy," said Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

However, life expectancy this year will likely not return to pre-pandemic levels, and a lot rides on what happens toward the end of the year, as deaths typically rise during winter months, Anderson said.

Meanwhile, some Indian and Pakistani students from the UAE are not able to return for the new school year. Pramod Mahajan, Director-Principal of Sharjah Indian School says: “Most people wanted to travel to their home countries as the Covid situation is much better this year. Therefore, families left for India. Now, because of the increasing ticket prices, they are unable to book their return. So they are waiting for the prices to come down a little.”

Mahajan highlighted that another reason for students not joining school in the first week is Covid-19. He says: “Some students have tested Covid positive upon their return and hence cannot join school as a PCR negative report is mandatory for all returning students as mandated by the Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA). But the strange part is, many of them do not show any symptoms. On the contrary, there are a few who have PCR negative reports but seem to be displaying some Covid like symptoms.”

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